Digital video recording (“DVR”) devices allow users to flexibly view or otherwise experience media content received by the DVR devices. For example, a user may direct a DVR device to tune to a particular channel carrying a media content program. In response, the DVR device may tune to the channel, buffer the media content program in a local buffer, and begin presenting the buffered media content program after a short delay. This allows the user to pause, rewind, and/or otherwise interact with the media content program as it is being presented. If the user changes the channel, the local buffer is cleared in anticipation of the new programming. However, an inadvertent or undesirable channel change produces the same buffer-clearing result, which can be frustrating for the user.
For example, a user may be using a conventional DVR device in his living room to watch a live broadcast of a football game being presented by way of a particular channel. The user may pause the presentation of the football game so that he can go to his kitchen to make a snack. While the user is in the kitchen, the user's toddler child may get ahold of a remote control for the conventional DVR device and inadvertently change the channel. Upon returning to the living room, the user may quickly change back to the channel presenting the football game only to find that a touchdown was scored during the time that he was in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the conventional DVR device would have cleared the local buffer being used to buffer the football game in response to the child changing the channel, thus preventing the user from viewing the touchdown scoring play.